


built for two

by tomatoes



Category: Metal Gear
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Character Study, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, gratuitous use of italics and em dashes, snake goes back to rescue otacon himself because i said so
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-14
Updated: 2019-02-14
Packaged: 2019-10-24 06:10:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,327
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17699105
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tomatoes/pseuds/tomatoes
Summary: After he helps Snake and Meryl escape, Hal is left alone.





	built for two

**Author's Note:**

> i read way too far into the space odyssey parallels

Hal felt the cold beginning to seep in.

He stared at the monitors dully. They hurt his vision in the dark room—too bright against his tired eyes. This combined with the low buzzing of the computers would give him a headache, eventually. But it didn't really matter, he supposed.

On one of the screens, there is movement. Hal's eyes darted towards it instinctively. He rolled his chair closer to get a better look.

Two figures zipping away on a snowmobile. _Snake and Meryl,_ his traitorous brain provided. Off into the infinite Alaskan tundra, with a beautiful sunset framing their joint silhouette.

_Stealth bombers should be here any minute now._

He felt it again—that wave of dread spreading out from his stomach to the rest of his body. He had _chosen_ to do this, he reminded himself. A sacrifice so the hero could get away. It was the best way he could make up for causing all this trouble in the first place. Sort of a last minute redemption arc, he supposed.

Snake and Meryl vanished over the horizon. The only clues of them having been there at all were the tracks left behind in the snow.

Hal listened to the static hum of the screens.

—

_It's been nearly two hours,_ Hal thought as he tapped his fingers against his desk. The combination of boredom and paranoia was stirring him into a frenzy. The clock on his wall continued to tick. He'd been rapidly twisting a Rubik's cube around for about thirty minutes, but he couldn't solve it. Now it sat on his desk, mismatched squares taunting him.

He wondered, grimly, if anyone would miss him—if anyone would even notice he was gone. He'd separated himself from all of his family, and didn't have any friends to speak of, let alone love interests. His crush on Wolf was far from what he would consider a romance; it was more a result of him being trapped here than anything. And the only other person he'd come close to having feelings for in years had just left on a snowmobile with a cute girl clinging to him.

_Dying alone. Fantastic._

He glanced at the shelves by his desk, the top one labeled with peeling masking tape that read "Mom" in pencil handwriting. The shelf was sparse—he'd barely been able to find anything about her, let alone get a hold of any of her belongings—but among the various clutter was a VHS of _2001: A Space Odyssey_ that he'd bought at a garage sale in college. That was one piece of her that wasn't hard to figure out. It was all he could do not to think about her when he watched it, about what she thought of the small red light in the spaceship. What she thought of Hal, after he was born. He knew she didn't really love him. She had named him after the villain, after all.

Hal walked over to the end of his bed, where he had set up an old tape player on top of an only slightly newer tv.

_You opened the doors for them. They're alive. You helped them. You were good._

Hal pushed the VHS into the player and pressed play.

—

When he woke up, the base was dark.

The constant hum of the computers was gone, replaced instead with suffocating silence. It took him a few moments to realize that the power had gone out when he was asleep. His head was pounding. Rubbing at his eyes roughly, he stood up and moved to check outside.

The quiet hiss of the observation balcony door opening was a warning for the blast of cold air that hit his face. Hal wrapped his jacket tighter around himself as he stepped outside, taking a breath of fresh air. The base was eerily silent, and he got the feeling that everyone else had already evacuated.

He'd never seen it fully dark before. Now the floodlights were out, the ground area was no longer patrolled by the guards making perfect lines between the boxes with their patrol. The sky, too, was empty, with no bombers in sight. All he could see were the thousands of stars, pinholes of light poked through the dark.

Hal was alone.

He barely realized he was crying until he felt his tears grow cold against his cheeks. He wiped them away furiously, embarrassed with himself, and turned to go back inside. The walk back to the lab was silent, haunted by his footsteps down the dark corridors. He found the allergy pills he kept near his bed, the ones that made him groggy even though they were supposed to be non-drowsy. He would always take some before he went to go visit Sniper Wolf and her pack. They were beautiful dogs, huge and fluffy and soft, but they made him sneeze. They were gone, now. Everything he'd known here was gone. And soon he would be too, pieces of him scattered among a crater in the tundra.

 _I'll sleep through the blast,_ his brain supplied hazily. He swallowed enough pills to knock himself out and laid down again.

—

He awoke to footsteps in the hallway outside his lab. He laid still in bed, accepting whatever fate would come to him.

"Otacon?"

The voice was familiar, but—he had—

"The bombers got called back. It's safe."

Otacon sat up and looked towards the other man. "Snake?"

"There you are. Sorry, did I scare you?"

"I—A little, yeah." Otacon rolled out of bed and stood, straightening his jacket.

Snake made a sound that could have been a laugh, but it sounded more like a huff of air. "Well, come on."

"What?"

"You can't stay here, obviously. The power went out, the government probably cut off this whole place. You'll freeze to death."

"Oh."

"You seem...indifferent." Snake was looking at him curiously. "Sorry if this is presumptuous, but I'd assumed you'd want a rescue."

"I just—It's dumb, whatever."

"What is it?"

"I—well, I was thinking—I hurt so many people, with REX, so I figured that I would..." His voice was shaking. Snake listened patiently. "I thought, if I died here after saving you and Meryl, it would—it would—make up for all of this."

Snake stayed silent. His expression was unreadable. Otacon suddenly felt very stupid. The familiar sting of tears was hot behind his eyes, and fought to hold them in.

"Why would you think that was a good idea?"

Something in Otacon broke. He inhaled sharply, shaking hands balled into fists. "I don't _know!_ But you're right, it is a bad idea, isn't it? I'm just the idiot who f-fell for the lies they were feeding me, and ended up being an-another pawn in their game! God, Snake, why the hell did you even come back here?"

"Otacon, I came back here to rescue you. I want you to live."

Hal blinked incredulously. "Why? What do you care?"

Snake sighed heavily. "Why does it matter if I care? You're a human being. I'm not going to leave you to freeze out in the middle of the arctic because you think you're the bad guy." Hal stayed silent. Snake put a hand on his shoulder. When he spoke again, his voice was softer. "You did one bad thing. If you die here, you miss the opportunity to use the rest of your life to do good things."

Hal sniffled. "Fine. Bring me with you." He straightened his posture. "Snake—I—let's go."

Snake gave him a small smile. "David." Hal looked at him quizzically. "Uh, that's my name. My real name. David. Or Dave."

"Oh! I-I'm Hal."

David laughed. "Maybe we should take a trip to Jupiter."

Hal blinked once, twice, and then smiled wide, feeling strangely giddy. Glancing around the room one last time, he took the VHS out of the tape player and shoved it in the pocket of his jacket before following David out the door.

—

Hal was staring at the snowmobile. His hands were burning from the cold, and his glasses were already beginning to feel freezing against the bridge of his nose. Something occurred to him, suddenly. "Where's Meryl?"

"Dropped her off in the closest town. She wanted to get back to the mainland to deal with everything that had happened."

"Oh," Hal said intelligently. "So we just go?"

David nodded. "Hop on."

The snowmobile moved quickly across the ground, and Hal watched as the night sky faded into the lavender haze of morning. He yawned despite himself.

"Tired?"

"A little bit."

"Try to relax. You've had a long day."

Hal wanted to prove that he was awake and alert, that he could be just as capable of the man in front of him, but he felt the weight of exhaustion in his bones. His sleep was no longer restless, haunted by the anticipation of death. Now he was safe.

Hal was not alone.

He hummed a tune softly as his head came to rest on Dave's shoulder.

_I'm half crazy, all for the love of you_

—

The first thing he heard was dogs barking. As his vision came back into focus, he was aware of hands gently trying to steady him on the seat, and a sore spot on his cheek where the shoulder piece on Snake's suit had left a mark.

"How are you feeling? You were out for most of the ride."

"Ah, I'm good. I feel a bit better now that I slept." The end of Hal's sentence was partially cut off by a yawn. Dave smiled, then turned to move towards what looked like a collection of small wooden dog houses in an enclosed part of the yard. Huskies were pushing against the wire fence, yapping and howling desperately.

"Y-You have dogs?"

Dave turned around. "Oh. Probably should've mentioned that. I'm a musher, actually. Do you want to see them?"

"I'm, uh. I'm actually kind of allergic?"

Dave winced in sympathy. "I think I have Benadryl inside. You can go in if you want." He gestured to the cabin's front door. "Just be warned, there's dog fur everywhere."

The door opened with a creak after a hard shove from his shoulder. The bare bulb hanging over the folding kitchen table was the only light on in the cabin, illuminating the greasy linoleum floor and peeling plastic counters. He could see the small living room from the kitchen, and the doors to what he assumed were the bedroom and bathroom as well. One by one, Hal searched the mostly empty cabinets until he found the small bottle of pink pills. He moved to open the cap, but hesitated. _How much of this is safe to take in one day?_ He stared at the bottle blankly for what felt like an eternity until the sound of David opening the door jolted him.

"How much of this can you take in one day?"

"Uh. Not sure. Why do you ask?"

"I took—I took, like, three or four earlier when I was trying to sleep through the," Hal swallowed roughly, "Through the nukes."

David was quiet for a moment, his expression unreadable once again. Hal fidgeted with the bottle. He sighed and gritted his teeth. "I-I'm sorry, I didn't mean to—"

"Hey, it's okay." Dave took the bottle from his shaking hands and put it back in the cabinet. "Do you want to come sit on the couch?"

"Um—"

"You should sit with me." Hal allowed him to take one of his hands, and Dave pulled him into the small living area a few feet away. The couch—lumpy and old, but comfortable—was welcome after months of military-grade furniture. Dave pressed him into the cushions, making sure he stayed put before vanishing into one of the two rooms behind him. Hal's eyes wandered around the small cabin, glancing over old framed photos until the other man came back, changed out of his mission uniform. He looked startlingly human in a t-shirt and sweatpants as he sat down on the couch—no headband to hide his expressions or sneaking suit to camouflage his body.

As Hal cautiously moved into Dave's personal space, he felt the boxy shape of the VHS press into his side uncomfortably, and pulled it out to toss it on the small coffee table in front of them.

"Oh, hey." Dave was looking at the tape with amusement.

"Huh—oh, yeah." Hal chuckled nervously. They were silent for a few moments. When Hal spoke again, he was quieter. "Why did you really come back for me?" Dave turned to face him. "I-I mean, you could have just called for a rescue, or let me try to escape on my own or something. Shadow Moses is such a long way from here, so why did you..." He trailed off, letting the rest of the unfinished sentence hang in the air between them.

Dave shrugged. "I guess I care about you. That's all."

"Care about me? You've only just met me." Dave shrugged again, and swung an arm around the back of the couch, resting inches above Hal's shoulders. Hal felt his face heat up and laced his fingers together in his lap. "I dunno, it just seemed weird."

Dave made a noncommittal noise. He was staring out of the window opposite to them, at the sun coming up over the horizon.

Hal glanced at the open space that was made against Dave's side with his arm behind him. He slowly inched closer, eventually leaning in to rest on his shoulder. After not moving out of fear for about 30 seconds, he managed to form words. "Is this okay?"

Dave laughed, and Hal felt it rumble through his broad chest. His arm came down to wrap around him and squeezed gently, and he quickly pressed his lips to the top of the smaller man's head. "Rest."

Hal closed his eyes.

He felt very warm.

**Author's Note:**

> snake: *driving 80mph on a snowmobile to rescue the guy he met less than 24 hours ago that he has a crush on* gay rights
> 
> holy shit it's been exactly 2 years LMAOOOOOO i'm in college now!!! i have a job! i'm a legal adult! time flies
> 
> if y'all can't tell my fic writing skills are VERY rusty but these two make me soft so i had to!!!!! ALSO. christopher randolph gave otacon the sweetest most real-sounding laugh of any character that's ever been voiced over do not fight me on this go watch a clip of the mgs otacon ending if you don't believe me
> 
> tumblr: sixpiecechickenmcnobody


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